“This client‐service model can run counter to universities’ educational mission when, as in the case of Title IX, universities may take actions that avoid OCR investigations and private lawsuits but that do not significantly improve gender equity,” the report says.

Instead, the AAUP argues, these steps may “actually exacerbate gender and other inequities on campus.”

In response, schools have reformed their policies, either due to activist or media scrutiny, or under pressure by guidance released by OCR. Those efforts haven’t been productive, according to AAUP, and often skimp on “comprehensive assessments of bases of inequality.”

For example, colleges and the Education Department would do well to focus on improving “conditions of interdisciplinary learning on campus by funding gender, feminist, and sexuality studies, as well as allied disciplines.” In other words, if schools focused more effort toward actually educating students about sex-based discrimination, they would be more effective at shifting cultures on campus.

The Education Department denied there is any conflict between its enforcement of —> Read More